Starter Kit. Idea 15 of 500. Cluster 1
Long-stay monthly rates for remote workers, with desks, power backup and fibre guaranteed
The mechanism, from the book
If Sri Lanka earned what the Maldives earns per visitor, the visitors it already has would bring in $2.4 billion a year more.
The first step
Test the power and internet at one guesthouse or apartment for a full week, log every cut, and fix what you can with a backup battery and a second connection. Then post a monthly rate, with the logged uptime, in three online communities of remote workers. A booking for a full month, and the worker's verdict after the first week, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Remote workers who can live anywhere with reliable internet and would pay a monthly rate for a written guarantee of power and fibre.
- What leaves today
- One month's stay is worth many short visits, yet without a guaranteed connection remote workers choose somewhere else to spend it.
Ask first
- Ceylon Electricity Board. Ask how reliable the supply is in this area and how backup power is usually arranged.
- Sustainable Energy Authority. Ask what advice they give on solar power and storage for a small building.
Check before you spend
That fibre is actually available at the address, how visa rules treat people working remotely, and what the lease allows for guests staying a month.
Find out these three numbers
- What monthly rate do remote workers pay elsewhere in the region?
- What does backup power and fibre cost per desk each month?
- How many remote workers would book a month here in advance?
A comparison from the book
Venice. Chapter Five
"Sri Lanka, at 8 nights, still has the thing Venice lost"
Long stays are the asset, so build for the guest who stays a month.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.